IHG Traveler card (2025 update!)

We’ve covered Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton’s cards, which are some of the most valuable hotel programs in the world.  The next program of note is with IHG.  IHG has a wide variety of hotels, including Holiday Inn and Kimpton.  Holiday Inns aren’t exciting hotels, but Kimptons often are very nice.  I’m not very familiar with IHG hotels, but I’ve had a great time at the Kimpton in Cambridge! And I recently stayed there again, so I wanted to update the IHG card reviews on here. The first card is the IHG Rewards Traveler Card, which has no annual fee. The competitors to this card, I’d argue, are the no annual fee Hilton Honors Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Bold card.

I provide the information here just to give readers a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  All information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Welcome Offer

At the time of posting, the IHG Traveler credit card has a limited time welcome offer of 80 000 IHG points after you spend $2 000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.  The number of points is very high for a no annual fee card, but IHG points are not a particularly valuable currency.  They have a value of around 0.5 ¢/pt, so the welcome bonus is worth around $400.

Earnings

The IHG Traveler card has a three-tiered structure: 5x points at IHG (~2.5%); 3x points on dining, utilities, “select” streaming services, and gas stations (~1.5%); and 2x points on all other purchases (~1%).  The non-IHG earning rates are relatively weak, even for a co-branded card. The earnings are cleanly beaten by the Hilton Honors Card but only marginally beat out the Marriott Bonvoy Bold card. 

Benefits

As a no annual fee card, the perks offered by this card are on the light side.  Specifically, the card offers Silver Elite Status with IHG, which can be upgraded to Gold Elite Status after spending $20 000 on the card in a calendar year.  Silver status offers the 4^th night free on points redemptions, 20% bonus points, and late checkout.  Gold Elite status offers the same perks but 40% bonus points. The card also offers an additional 10 000 bonus points (worth about $50) after spending $10 000 on the card in a calendar year, which is a decent incentive (and corresponds to an extra 1 point per dollar).

How to use the points

The main use for IHG points is to redeem them for stays at IHG hotels.  IHG has a large global footprint, but many of its brands are less aspirational and more functional than many of the Hilton/Hyatt/Marriott brands.  I rarely stay at IHG properties, so I don’t have substantial insight to offer yet, but information I’ve seen online suggests IHG points are worth 0.5 ¢/pt.

Examples of using the card

These examples assume you spend all your hotel budget at IHG.

Spend per month

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (2x)	$300	600	$200	400	$600	1 200	$400	800
Gas (3x)	$0	0	$100	300	$200	600	$100	300
Airfare (2x)	$700	1 400	$200	400	$0	0	$400	800
Hotels (5x)	$1 000	5 000	$200	1 000	$0	0	$300	1 500
Gen Travel (2x)	$400	800	$0	0	$300	600	$100	200
Dining (3x)	$600	1 800	$300	900	$300	900	$0	0
General (2x)	$1 000	2 000	$500	1 000	$500	1 000	$400	800
Total	$4 000	11 600	$1 500	4 000	$1 700	4 300	$1 700	4 400
Average points/$		2.90		2.67		2.52		2.59

The IHG Traveler card’s simple bonus categories mean that the average points earned has a somewhat small range of 2.52 – 2.90 points/$, which is worth 1.26 – 1.45 ¢/$, with the valuation of 0.5 ¢/point. The low value of IHG points means that this card is unlikely to be worth putting much spend on, which is not uncommon for a cobranded card.

Specific examples

These examples include the bonus points earned from getting IHG Elite Silver status from the card.

Card	World Traveller ($750)  (% return)	IHG Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (WT/Hotel)
No rewards card	2 728 (4.9%)	2 200 IP (4.8%)	$37.10 / $11.00
General 2% cashback card ($0)	2 728 + $15.00 (6.9%)	2 200 IP + $4.60 (6.8%)	$52.10 / $15.60
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95)	2 728 Avios + 1 500 UR (7.9%)	2 200 IP + 460 UR (7.8%)	$59.60 / $17.90
Amex Green Card ($150)	2 728 Avios + 2 250 MR (9.1%)	2 200 IP + 690 MR (9.3%)	$68.60 / $21.35
IHG Traveler Card ($0)	2 728 Avios + 1 500 IP (5.9%)	3 570 IP (12.5%)	$42.60 / $28.85

Is this credit card right for you?

I don’t think this is a good card to pick.  I think getting a simple 2% cashback card will provide more value for you in the long-run if you want to avoid paying an annual fee.  I do think, however, that the version of this card with an annual fee might make sense for some people, so stay tuned for that article.  The IHG Premier Card has a much better offering.